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The Rest That God Promised

4Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest is still open, let us take care that none of you should seem to have failed to reach it. ²For indeed the good news came to us just as to them; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.^{* 3}For we who have believed enter that rest, just as God^* has said,
‘As in my anger I swore,
“They shall not enter my rest” ’,
though his works were finished at the foundation of the world. ⁴For in one place it speaks about the seventh day as follows: ‘And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.’ ⁵And again in this place it says, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ¹¹Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall through such disobedience as theirs.

Psalm 78

God’s Goodness and Israel’s Ingratitude

A Maskil of Asaph.
¹ Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;
   incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
² I will open my mouth in a parable;
   I will utter dark sayings from of old,
³ things that we have heard and known,
   that our ancestors have told us.
⁴ We will not hide them from their children;
   we will tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,
   and the wonders that he has done.

⁵ He established a decree in Jacob,
   and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our ancestors
   to teach to their children;
⁶ that the next generation might know them,
   the children yet unborn,
and rise up and tell them to their children,
⁷   so that they should set their hope in God,
and not forget the works of God,
   but keep his commandments;
⁸ and that they should not be like their ancestors,
   a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose heart was not steadfast,
   whose spirit was not faithful to God.

⁹ The Ephraimites, armed with^* the bow,
   turned back on the day of battle.
¹⁰ They did not keep God’s covenant,
   but refused to walk according to his law.
¹¹ They forgot what he had done,
   and the miracles that he had shown them.
¹² In the sight of their ancestors he worked marvels
   in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.
¹³ He divided the sea and let them pass through it,
   and made the waters stand like a heap.
¹⁴ In the daytime he led them with a cloud,
   and all night long with a fiery light.
¹⁵ He split rocks open in the wilderness,
   and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep.
¹⁶ He made streams come out of the rock,
   and caused waters to flow down like rivers.

¹⁷ Yet they sinned still more against him,
   rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
¹⁸ They tested God in their heart
   by demanding the food they craved.
¹⁹ They spoke against God, saying,
   ‘Can God spread a table in the wilderness?
²⁰ Even though he struck the rock so that water gushed out
   and torrents overflowed,
can he also give bread,
   or provide meat for his people?’

²¹ Therefore, when the Lord heard, he was full of rage;
   a fire was kindled against Jacob,
   his anger mounted against Israel,
²² because they had no faith in God,
   and did not trust his saving power.
²³ Yet he commanded the skies above,
   and opened the doors of heaven;
²⁴ he rained down on them manna to eat,
   and gave them the grain of heaven.
²⁵ Mortals ate of the bread of angels;
   he sent them food in abundance.
²⁶ He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens,
   and by his power he led out the south wind;
²⁷ he rained flesh upon them like dust,
   winged birds like the sand of the seas;
²⁸ he let them fall within their camp,
   all around their dwellings.
²⁹ And they ate and were well filled,
   for he gave them what they craved.
³⁰ But before they had satisfied their craving,
   while the food was still in their mouths,
³¹ the anger of God rose against them
   and he killed the strongest of them,
   and laid low the flower of Israel.

³² In spite of all this they still sinned;
   they did not believe in his wonders.
³³ So he made their days vanish like a breath,
   and their years in terror.
³⁴ When he killed them, they sought for him;
   they repented and sought God earnestly.
³⁵ They remembered that God was their rock,
   the Most High God their redeemer.
³⁶ But they flattered him with their mouths;
   they lied to him with their tongues.
³⁷ Their heart was not steadfast towards him;
   they were not true to his covenant.
³⁸ Yet he, being compassionate,
   forgave their iniquity,
   and did not destroy them;
often he restrained his anger,
   and did not stir up all his wrath.
³⁹ He remembered that they were but flesh,
   a wind that passes and does not come again.
⁴⁰ How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness
   and grieved him in the desert!
⁴¹ They tested God again and again,
   and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
⁴² They did not keep in mind his power,
   or the day when he redeemed them from the foe;
⁴³ when he displayed his signs in Egypt,
   and his miracles in the fields of Zoan.
⁴⁴ He turned their rivers to blood,
   so that they could not drink of their streams.
⁴⁵ He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them,
   and frogs, which destroyed them.
⁴⁶ He gave their crops to the caterpillar,
   and the fruit of their labour to the locust.
⁴⁷ He destroyed their vines with hail,
   and their sycomores with frost.
⁴⁸ He gave over their cattle to the hail,
   and their flocks to thunderbolts.
⁴⁹ He let loose on them his fierce anger,
   wrath, indignation, and distress,
   a company of destroying angels.
⁵⁰ He made a path for his anger;
   he did not spare them from death,
   but gave their lives over to the plague.
⁵¹ He struck all the firstborn in Egypt,
   the first issue of their strength in the tents of Ham.
⁵² Then he led out his people like sheep,
   and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
⁵³ He led them in safety, so that they were not afraid;
   but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
⁵⁴ And he brought them to his holy hill,
   to the mountain that his right hand had won.
⁵⁵ He drove out nations before them;
   he apportioned them for a possession
   and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

⁵⁶ Yet they tested the Most High God,
   and rebelled against him.
   They did not observe his decrees,
⁵⁷ but turned away and were faithless like their ancestors;
   they twisted like a treacherous bow.
⁵⁸ For they provoked him to anger with their high places;
   they moved him to jealousy with their idols.
⁵⁹ When God heard, he was full of wrath,
   and he utterly rejected Israel.
⁶⁰ He abandoned his dwelling at Shiloh,
   the tent where he dwelt among mortals,
⁶¹ and delivered his power to captivity,
   his glory to the hand of the foe.
⁶² He gave his people to the sword,
   and vented his wrath on his heritage.
⁶³ Fire devoured their young men,
   and their girls had no marriage song.
⁶⁴ Their priests fell by the sword,
   and their widows made no lamentation.
⁶⁵ Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,
   like a warrior shouting because of wine.
⁶⁶ He put his adversaries to rout;
   he put them to everlasting disgrace.

⁶⁷ He rejected the tent of Joseph,
   he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;
⁶⁸ but he chose the tribe of Judah,
   Mount Zion, which he loves.
⁶⁹ He built his sanctuary like the high heavens,
   like the earth, which he has founded for ever.
⁷⁰ He chose his servant David,
   and took him from the sheepfolds;
⁷¹ from tending the nursing ewes he brought him
   to be the shepherd of his people Jacob,
   of Israel, his inheritance.
⁷² With upright heart he tended them,
   and guided them with skilful hand.

Jesus Heals a Paralytic

2When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. ²So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door; and he was speaking the word to them. ³Then some people^* came, bringing to him a paralysed man, carried by four of them. ⁴And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. ⁵When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’ ⁶Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, ⁷‘Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ ⁸At once Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves; and he said to them, ‘Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? ⁹Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven”, or to say, “Stand up and take your mat and walk”? ¹⁰But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’—he said to the paralytic— ¹¹‘I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home.’ ¹²And he stood up, and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this!’